Ellen Huet
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Ellen Huet is an American journalist known for her investigative reporting on startups, Silicon Valley culture, and technology. She is a features writer for
Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg T ...
and ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', where she covers topics including artificial intelligence, consumer technology, and tech industry power dynamics.


Early life and education

Huet was born and raised in
Fremont, California Fremont () is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. Located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area, Fremont has a population of 230,504 as of 2020, making it the fourth List of cities and towns in the San F ...
. She attended
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and Political Science. During her time at Stanford, she was a senior staff writer and managing news editor for ''The Stanford Daily''.


Career

Huet began her journalism career at the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', where she covered crime and breaking news. She later joined ''
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
'' as a staff writer, reporting on technology and its societal impacts. In December 2015, she joined Bloomberg, where she continues to focus on in-depth stories related to the tech industry and startup culture.


OneTaste investigation

In 2018, Huet wrote an investigative piece for ''
Bloomberg Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...
'' titled "The Dark Side of the Orgasmic Meditation Company", which examined OneTaste, a company promoting "orgasmic meditation". The article detailed allegations of abusive labor practices and coercion within the organization. The company was later investigated by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
.


"Foundering" podcast

In 2020, Huet reported and hosted the seven-part narrative podcast Foundering, which examined the rise and fall of
WeWork WeWork Inc., headquartered in New York City, is a provider of coworking spaces, including physical and virtual shared spaces, in approximately 600 buildings in 125 cities. WeWork was founded in 2010 by Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey. Ove ...
and its co-founder
Adam Neumann Adam Neumann (; born April 25, 1979) is an Israeli-American billionaire businessman and investor. In 2010, he co-founded WeWork with Miguel McKelvey, where he was CEO from 2010 to 2019. In 2019, he co-founded a family office dubbed 166 2nd Fi ...
. The podcast received first place in the SABEW Best in Business audio category and was a finalist for the Livingston Award. In 2024, Huet hosted another season of Foundering, which chronicled the founding and internal power struggles at
OpenAI OpenAI, Inc. is an American artificial intelligence (AI) organization founded in December 2015 and headquartered in San Francisco, California. It aims to develop "safe and beneficial" artificial general intelligence (AGI), which it defines ...
, with a character study of CEO
Sam Altman Samuel Harris Altman (born April 22, 1985) is an American technology entrepreneur, investor, and the chief executive officer of OpenAI since 2019 (he was Removal of Sam Altman from OpenAI, briefly dismissed and reinstated in November 2023). He ...
.


Awards and recognition

Huet has received several accolades throughout her career: * Finalist for the
Livingston Award The Livingston Awards at the University of Michigan are American journalism awards issued to media professionals under the age of 35 for local, national, and international reporting. They are the largest, all-media, general reporting prizes in Amer ...
(2021) for her work on the Foundering podcast. * First place in the SABEW Best in Business audio category (2020) for Foundering. * First place in the Digital Media: Breaking News category at the Bay Area Journalism Awards (2020) for her coverage of WeWork's IPO filing.


Selected publications

* "The Dark Side of the Orgasmic Meditation Company" – Bloomberg Businessweek * "They Invented the Must-Have Instrument for the Burning Man Set. Now They Want to Kill It Off" – Bloomberg Businessweek * "WeWork Wants to Become Its Own Landlord With Latest Spending Spree" – Bloomberg Businessweek * ''Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult'' (October 2025)


References


External links

*
Bloomberg Author Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Huet, Ellen Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women journalists Stanford University alumni People from Fremont, California Forbes people San Francisco Chronicle people Bloomberg L.P. people American women podcasters